


In The Flesh

by nitzimetzi



Category: Ghost Rider (2007), Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27940283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitzimetzi/pseuds/nitzimetzi
Summary: Johnny/The Rider, Nadya and Danny live together, Blackheart is looking for a new way to overthrow his old man, and the protagonist, a young girl, becomes some kind of female Rider after striking a deal to save her dying sister.
Kudos: 2





	In The Flesh

**Author's Note:**

> Brought this over from fanfiction.com because the editing and stuff on that site sucks ass.
> 
> I wrote this ages ago, before I started on "Like cats and dogs"

Ghost Rider - In the flesh

The evening light of the waning sun bathed the faces of the two dark-skinned people in a rosy glow as they came out of the village church.  
The old lady took the little girl by the hand and led her, as they set out for home. The last daylight accompanied them, until they reached the edge of town.  
The houses stood black and menacing against the night sky and between the streets a few hissing cats chased each other.  
The old lady hesitated.

It was not their usual route, but the service had ended later than usual and so she had to take the abbreviation through this district.  
It was one of the poorer areas of the city , one that a child and an old woman should not enter alone. However, the little one began to be fretful and the way around the neighborhood would have taken too much time. For a while she stood hesitating in the nightly coolness and considered.

She should have thought up beforehand how they would get home.  
"Excuse me?" A friendly voice called behind them.  
The old lady turned around.  
A young man came up to them.  
"Sorry for ambushing you like that, but I have to get to Kensington Drive. It's just a little scary, all alone. May I come with you, please?"  
For a moment the woman was unsure whether to say yes. But it was a good solution. If the young man wanted to rob her, he could do it as well as anyone else. And if he didn't want that, she would have good company.  
"That's fine." She answered. "I need to get near Kensington Drive too. Come on."  
The young man smiled and sauntered beside them, hands in his trouser pockets.  
Nothing happened, except that the darkness and silence strained the old nanny's nerves, but they arrived happy and safe on Kensington Drive, where everything was brightly lit again.  
A well-tended street stretched in front of them; new black tar lined with friendly family row houses, pretty hibiscus bushes and box trees grew on neatly trimmed green strips, subtly lit by the outside lamps by the front doors.  
"One moment please." The young man pleaded politely and stopped. He reached into his pants pocket, which was reassuringly flat, and pulled out a marble.  
"Here, little one." He said with a smile and held out the little glass ball to the child. The girl reached out with shining eyes and smiled. When her fingers touched the glass, coldness shot up her arm like lightning. Startled, she let go again and began to cry heartbreakingly.  
The marble hit the floor with a click and vanished into thin air. Nobody noticed it.  
"Oh, what's she got?" The young man asked, concerned.  
"Oh, she's just very tired already. Thank you for bringing me here. Good night. Come on, Salome, let's go in."  
The old lady nodded to the young man and carried Salome to the front door. The outside lamp went on automatically, but the light seemed to avoid the figure of the man who was still standing in the street, smiling after the old nanny and the toddler.

It wasn't a good smile.

Skye woke up startled. Her sister was crying. Like every night around this time. Probably had to be brought to the toilet.  
Groaning, Skye buried her face in her pillow. She wanted to sleep.  
When the howling had not stopped after five minutes, although the voices of their parents sounded from the other side, she got up sleepily and lumbered into the room of Salome.  
"What is going on here?" She growled tired. "Can´t she be quiet already?"  
"Oh, she is sick." Her mother replied mounful. "Really hot forehead and ice-cold hands."  
Muttering Skye returned to her room.  
But the hubbub continued.  
Eventually, the noises suggested that their mother was going to take Salome to a doctor. Then there was silence.  
Skye fell asleep.  
The next day, however, seemed to have brought no improvement.

Doctor Carter was present, one of the primary care physicians around. Skye's mother knelt beside the bed, her eyes were red and she seemed as if she had not come to rest all night.  
"What's going on?", The young woman asked with increasing restlessness.  
Her mother sobbed and her father put his arms around her.  
"Your sister is very ill." The African said gloomily.  
"What? Why, what's wrong with her?"  
"We do not know."  
"For some reason her organs fail to work." Doctor Carter said regretfully.  
Skye's mouth fell open in horror. "B-but you can help her, right?"  
The doctor took off his gold-rimmed glasses and rubbed his nose.  
"...I'm really very sorry."  
"We'll find someone who can help her!" Skye's father Joseph said to her mother.  
She sobbed again and nodded.  
"I'm disconsolent." Sighed Carter. "But the time this´d take is probably no longer left to you."  
"W-w-what do you m-mean?", Skye's mother managed to say, her face stone-grey.  
Carter suddenly looked much older than he actually was.  
"...I...give her...less than 24 hours."

The asphalt began to glow slightly as Zarathos stepped onto it and a faint whispering rustle ran through the leaves of the trees and shrubs all around, as if nature itself welcomed the angel of justice.  
It was chilly. Crickets chirped their lonely song sporadically.  
Zarathos raised his skull to look at the stars, small diamonds in black velvet, and inhaled deeply the scent of the night through his skeletonized nostrils.  
If he had had lips, he would have smiled. His fire burned smoothly and evenly in bright blue, peaceful as his mind.  
He closed the door of the house, that Johnny, Nadya and Danny shared at the moment and walked relaxed over to his motorcycle, which welcomed him with a faint roar of the engine.  
With the elegance of years of practice he swung his leg on the wide saddle and kicked the starter. The enthusiastic roar of the engine shook the night.  
Flames blazed and marked the way Ghost Rider had taken.

Upstairs in the house Danny climbed back into the bed, from which he had fallen, as the Rider had mounted his vehicle in the courtyard below.  
"Accursed bone head! I'll never get used to that!" Chuntered the son of the devil and pulled the duvet up under his nose.

Skye rushed out of the house.  
Blinded by tears, she stumbled into the garage, jumped on the motorcycle of her father and started it. The engine roared loudly and the machine shot out onto the road bucking.  
After a moment, Skye got the bike under control and drove down the street, paying no attention to the way she took.  
Only when a low-hanging branch slapped her in the face on a bumpy road, she came to her senses, realized where she was after a moment.  
Just around the next corner was the cemetery.

She turned the key, put the kickstand out with some effort and dismounted on shaky legs.  
The sunlight bathed the clean, pretty place in a golden shimmer with cruel beauty. Hesitantly Skye slunk between the grave stones until she arrived at the familiar, light gray stone, on which the names of her own ancestors were engraved.  
"Joanne Slade" was at the bottom.  
The sight of the name of her grandmother made Skye choke. Would soon the name of her sister be here as well?  
The young woman sank down onto the grass and began to sob again.  
The pain was so intense that it seemed almost unreal. Skye cried until her eyes were red and her throat rough and she had no energy left.  
The grass fell towards her and caught her gently.  
For a while she lay still, capable of no clear thoughts. Then something soft touched her hand.  
She sat up and saw a small cat.  
The animal climbed into her lap purring and licked her tears away with a warm, rough tongue. An unusually trusting animal.  
It took a moment, until Skye came to her senses. Then she pushed the cat off herself gently and stood up.  
The animal did not bother about that handling but kept rubbing its flank at Skye's legs, purring loudly, until the young woman bent down and petted it gently.  
"What do you want?" She asked softly. "I can not give you any love. I'm sad, you know?"  
The cat ran a few steps away, stopped, looked back at her and meowed softly.  
As the animal meowed again, Skye followed it hesitantly. Again and again it stopped, looked over its shoulder and waited until she had approached. Then it finally disappeared into the doorway of a small chapel.  
"Hey, wait! You can't be in there!"  
But it could and the young woman followed her.  
Inside it was dark.  
Skye pulled out her cell phone and turned the screen brightness on full, so she could see something.

The cat sat high on something that she could not accurately identify and stared at her with glowing green eyes. The young woman crept closer cautiously, careful not to trip, and squinted to see anything.  
The animal sat on a coffin.

The lid was ajar, pushed to the side. When Skye came closer, the cat reached into the gap with its paw. Skye pushed it to the side, shone in, and then brought a roll of paper forward.  
She hurried back to the entrance and read in the in-falling light what was written on it.  
With each line with her eyes grew bigger.  
Testament, stood there. Carter Slade. Ghost Rider. Mephistofeles. Contract.  
"... Nonsense." She finally snorted and threw the paper roll back into the darkness.  
For a moment she stood still, considering.  
"Nonsense!" She repeated louder then and strode back to her motorcycle angrily.  
Cursing to herself she mounted it and drove back home.  
Her mood had reached its darkest point. And her sister still hovered between life and death.

The rest of the day she spent praying.  
She called a priest, with whom she went through everything that could be helpful.  
She prayed rosaries, confessed, lit candles, droned the psalms, and ... and ... and ...  
But when evening fell, Salome's health status had degraded again drastically.  
Doctor Carter checked her pulse from time to time with a solemn expression.  
The pastor prayed with enervating voice and made the sign of the cross over Salome.  
To see that made Skye suddenly furious. She prayed here for her sister, put all her hope in God's hands, but what happened? Absolutely nothing!  
When DID God help one if you prayed at all? Never! God! If He existed, which Skye doubted by now, then he didn´t give a tinker´s damn about what happened to Salome!  
Carter took the child's wrist again and shook his head gloomily.

Tears shot to Skyes eyes. She jumped up, tore the cross hanging over the bed from the wall and hurled it angrily out the window.  
"Bastard!" She yelled after Jesus figure. "Fuck off!"  
Then she spun around again to the intoning priest who just raised a frond to sprinkle Salome with holy water.  
She yanked the fronds away, threw it behind her and hit the bucket with the holy water out of his hand, so that his cassock became completely soaked at the front.  
"GAAH!" She shouted angrily. "Out! Get lost! And take your sanctimonious God with you!" And turning to her mother she declared: "She is NOT dead YET!"  
And she stormed out of the house.

Outside, she threw the head back and screamed with might and main:  
"IF GOD WON´T HELP ME THEN HOW ABOUT THE DEVIL! ONE OF YOU GUYS HEAR ME?! I! WANT! HELP!"  
She trailed off.  
Listened, breathing heavily, but all she heard was her own panting.  
Again the despair overcame her. On no one you could rely nowadays. Probably the devil had retired long ago.  
Skye narrowed her eyes tightly to keep from crying.  
She turned- and screamed in fright in a low voice.  
Before her stood a unknown man, and smiled at her.


End file.
